The present disclosure relates to an ion exchanger.
When a fuel cell is mounted on, for example, a vehicle, the vehicle includes a cooling circuit, through which a coolant flows to cool the fuel cell. This limits an increase in the temperature of the fuel cell when producing electricity.
In a new cooling circuit that has just been manufactured, many ions (cations) are eluted from, for example, a pipe into the coolant of the cooling circuit. This results in a sudden increase in the concentration of ions in the coolant. Even if the elution of ions into the coolant diminishes as time elapses, when the fuel cell is cooled by the coolant, components of the coolant are decomposed by heat to cause the generation of ions (anions). This gradually increases the concentration of ions in the coolant.
In the above cooling circuit, such increases in the concentration of ions contained in the coolant may corrode a metal portion of the cooling circuit or increase the electrical conductivity of the coolant, which adversely affects the function of the fuel cell. Thus, the cooling circuit includes an ion exchanger to remove ions from the coolant through ion exchange performed by an ion exchange resin (refer to Japanese Patent No. 4113715).
In an ion exchanger, the ion exchange resin periodically needs to be replaced with a new one. Thus, the ion exchanger has a structure that facilitates the replacement of the ion exchange resin. More specifically, the ion exchanger includes a housing that is open upwardly. The housing includes an inlet, which draws in the coolant from the cooling circuit, and an outlet, which discharges the coolant to the cooling circuit out of the housing. Additionally, a cartridge that contains the ion exchange resin is mounted within the housing so as to be removable upwardly through the opening of the housing.
When the coolant flows from the cooling circuit via the inlet into the housing and passes through the ion exchange resin of the cartridge, the ion exchange resin performs ion exchange to remove ions from the coolant. After the removal of ions, the coolant is discharged out of the housing to the cooling circuit via the outlet. The replacement of the ion exchange resin in the ion exchanger is performed by removing the ion exchange resin upwardly out of the housing together with the cartridge and then installing another cartridge that contains a new ion exchange resin downwardly into the housing.